Energy source Poll. please give your input.

[Motown_Johnny]

17. Electrolysis is not energy efficient.

It is a good way to store extra energy so that it is not wasted, but not a reasonable primary energy source.


It will always take more energy to produce the hydrogen than you will get out of it. In rough numbers, you get back about 75% of the energy used. So ~25% is lost, just to store that energy as Hydrogen. If you are going to still use batteries to power electric vehicles, then the extra step of making hydrogen makes little to no sense. If you are going to power the vehicles with hydrogen directly it does make a bit more sense.

Unfortunately, natural gas works just as well as pure hydrogen for this purpose. It is also less expensive and easier to produce. Sure, you can extract the hydrogen from the natural gas, but that makes no sense either. You are just adding a step (again) and releasing the carbon into the atmosphere at a production site somewhere instead of in the vehicle.